


Let's Talk

by deirdre_aithne



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:15:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27404143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deirdre_aithne/pseuds/deirdre_aithne
Summary: Severus is hiding something, and Harry's determined to get to the bottom of it.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Severus Snape
Comments: 11
Kudos: 177
Collections: Fandom For Australia





	Let's Talk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pt_tucker](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pt_tucker/gifts).



> **Disclaimer:** I do not own or claim to own any characters, settings, locations, etc. from Harry Potter. All borrowed aspects of the above fandom are used purely for entertainment in a fanwork, and will be returned to their proper fandom and owners scratch, dent, and injury-free.  
>  **Author's Notes:** Written for pt_tucker, who won my Fandom for Australia offer from earlier in the year. It... took way too long for me to finish this. Partly medical issues, partly just struggling to settle on an idea. It's not everything I wanted to do for it initially, but the boys seemed happy with a fade-to-black this time. Hope you enjoy it, and as usual, all remaining mistakes are my own.

"You can't avoid me forever, you know."

Harry half expected Severus to drop the phial in his hands with the way he jumped, biting down hard on his bottom lip to keep from laughing. Luckily, Severus kept his back to him after regaining his composure. As annoying as it was that even now, Severus was continuing to ignore him, at least it gave Harry a chance to appreciate the view as Severus stretched up to his full height, arm extended to place the phial on the top shelf behind the counter.

It had taken nearly three weeks for Harry to finally just corner him like this. The first week of privacy had been a courtesy, while he tried to suss out just what he'd done to ruin their date. If that disaster could even be _called_ a date at this point.

It certainly hadn't been the first time they'd shared dinner together, or spent the night drinking and talking. The snogging had been new, of course, and he _had_ actually invited Severus over for dinner intending it as a date. But then Severus had bolted after Harry had made an effort to pull him closer, and all Harry had been able to assume was that he'd misread the signs.

Of course, after that first week, Harry had started coming around Severus's shop again, only for Severus to hide out in his workroom in the back the moment he saw him coming. And all attempts to get past Severus's sole employee had been futile. Not that Harry could blame him – as intimidating as he liked to think he was, he knew full well that Severus was the more terrifying of the two of them, even mellowed as he had been by age and the lack of masters breathing down his neck.

Not that something as small as Graham Montague running interference for him was going to stop Harry from getting to the bottom of The Incident. Especially not when Malfoy already owed him a favour after their last case together.

"So, then," Harry said, once his patience with the silence had finally reached its end. He pushed away from the door frame he'd been leaning against only to stop when Severus spun sharply on his heel to face him with a scowl.

"Shall I assume Mr Montague's absence this afternoon was your doing?"

Harry cocked his head to one side. "I don't know what you could mean. Though I did hear Malfoy talking about some 'Slytherin Alumni' luncheon he was trying to organize, the other day. Perhaps that's where he's gone?"

Severus snorted and turned away, stalking around the counter and towards his work room at the back of the shop. "How subtle of you. I believe you know where the door is, Potter. Do try not to slam it on the way out."

"Severus."

Ignoring him, Severus disappeared into the work room without a backward glance. Harry stayed put for a second, staring after him, before his irritation boiled over. Grabbing the sign hanging on the door, he flipped it around to show 'Closed' through the window, and opened the door only to slam it closed again. If Severus thought it would really be that easy to run him off, he had another thing coming to him. Let him think he'd won for a moment.

Harry waited long enough to get himself under control before he followed, slow and quiet lest Severus get the idea to just Apparate out of the place. Not that Harry didn't know how to get to Spinner's End. But making Severus talk to him _there_ would be damn near impossible and he knew it.

It took him twice the time to reach the back room than it had Severus, but by the time he did, it seemed as though Severus was thoroughly engrossed in whatever work he had started. With his back to the doorway, it was hard to be sure, but for the second he had to contemplate it, it seemed Severus was taking notes over one of his cauldrons.

Until the spark of red came his way from beneath one arm, and Harry only just managed to jump out of the way.

"I told you to leave."

"You told me not to slam the door," Harry countered, holding his wand this time as he stepped into the room. Severus might not be likely to seriously injure him, but that didn't mean he wouldn't fire off a nasty hex or two before they were done. "You might have noticed I didn't listen to _that_ , either."

Severus hung his head. "What do you _want_ , Potter?"

"For you to stop dodging me, for one thing." Harry edged closer and conjured a stool to sit on at the end of the table, leaving some space between himself and Severus while still forcing himself into his peripheral view. "And for us to talk about this like adults."

"There's nothing for us to discuss-"

Harry rolled his eyes up toward the ceiling. "Oh, _fuck off_ ," he snapped, this tone succeeding in stopping Severus mid-turn away from him. "I'm not nearly that thick, and I know damned well _you_ aren't either. So can we _please_ just deal with this now so we can move on?"

When only stubborn silence answered him, Harry finally sighed and hopped off his stool to pace the perimeter of the room instead. He'd never seen Severus's work room before, though he'd always imagined it would look something like his former classroom at Hogwarts. Dark and ominous, and incredibly impersonal. Cauldrons, ingredients, and nothing else on display.

Instead, the room was well lit and almost homey, if a touch on the cramped side. A desk had been pushed into one back corner, the top of it piled high on one side with stacks of papers and folios, while the other side held an inkwell and the only cleared space for actually writing. Behind it, a narrow bookshelf leaned precariously against the wall, its shelves stuffed to bursting with books, many of which looked like casual reading rather than potions texts. Even a small rug softened the hard floor behind the desk, and a rickety table had been wedged into the space to house a basic tea set.

Three tightly packed rows of work tables filled the centre of the room, with twelve cauldrons spread out across them and just enough space between them to be able to work without jostling an adjacent cauldron. It was space efficient, if a little claustrophobic. The saving grace seemed to be the fact the brewing ingredients had their own supply closet at the back of the room, which prevented the walls from creeping in even closer with shelves.

"I'm sorry if I overstepped," Harry said at last, pausing beside the desk to examine a chipped tea cup. "I kissed you thinking we were both interested, but clearly I was wrong on that front. Otherwise you wouldn't have run off like that, or avoided me for weeks."

As he paused, Harry turned back and caught Severus watching him with a strange expression. Before he could place it, however, it was gone, slipping away behind the usual mask as Severus turned his face away.

"Of course, you _did_ kiss me back, first..."

Harry set the tea cup back down on its tray and edged closer to the work table again, watching Severus closely this time as he moved. It was dangerous territory he was treading, assuming that what could have just been a knee-jerk response meant anything more than that. But if Severus wasn't going to talk without a push, then Harry was ready to give it to him.

"Maybe I wasn't entirely off base, was I? Kissing you would have been just fine, but something else ran you off. So what is it, Severus?"

Placing his hands on the work table directly across from Severus, Harry leaned forward slightly, invading his space further and dipping his head to force himself back into his periphery.

"What's the excuse going to be? 'I'm not gay'?"

Severus snorted, a fraction of the tension in his shoulders easing as he finally met Harry's eyes again. "Do give me _some_ credit, Potter. I haven't been in denial about that since I was in my fifth year."

Despite his best efforts, Harry cracked a smile. "Well, have to start at the basics, don't I?" Straightening up, he considered Severus with a serious expression once more. "What is it, then? Did I actually get it wrong, or is there something else going on?"

"If I cease avoiding you, will you let the matter drop?" Severus broke eye contact in favour of gathering up the notes beside his cauldron, making a move to round the table past him and stumbling when Harry moved into his path to stop him. "Potter-"

"You've been calling me Harry for _months_ , _Severus_. Stop trying to avoid it and just bloody talk to me!"

Static crackled in the air around them as Harry glared Severus down, waiting until he took a step further back and set his notes back down to take a breath. Still, Severus remained silent and it took another few seconds of deep breathing for Harry to settle both his magic and his temper. He'd known it was likely to be difficult, but he hadn't expected Severus to stonewall him completely.

"Is it the age, then?" he asked once he'd regained a measure of his composure. A muscle in Severus's jaw twitched, but that was all the response he gave. With a sigh, Harry nodded. "I might have guessed that. It's hardly that bad, you know. Especially when you consider the fact I practically grew up fighting a war. Don't think we're going to have such a problem relating life experiences at this point."

Severus gave a derisive snort, but remained otherwise impassive. Although Harry swore he shuddered when the static crackled briefly around them again.

"And you're not exactly 'robbing the cradle' here. We're well past the point anyone would look at it that way. So _why_? The experience divide, maybe?"

Another muscle twitched in Severus's jaw, and Harry pressed on. "Is that _really_ a problem to you? Bloody hell, Severus, I'm not exactly a simpering virgin, here. Why in the hells would _that_ be your problem with it?"

"Because no thirty-year-old wants a partner twenty years his senior with half his experience!"

The instant the words left him, Severus's eyes widened and he snapped his mouth shut with an audible _clack_ of his teeth. He took another sharp step to the side in an effort to get around the table, only for Harry to block him a second time.

"Leave," Severus ordered in a rough whisper, drawing his wand when Harry stayed where he was. " _Now_."

"No."

A decisive flick of Severus's wand sent a spark of gold into Harry's knee without another word, sending him stumbling backward as his leg gave out under him. Catching himself on the table behind him, he managed to aim his own wand at Severus's feet just as he passed, the laces of his right boot slipping loose and catching beneath the left as it came down.

The victory was short lived as Severus twisted around as he stumbled. His second jinx missed as Harry flung himself towards Severus and out of the way, though the third spell that followed managed to hit the mark. Harry's left hand closed around a fistful of Severus's robes, just as his wand was ripped from his right hand and clattered to the floor several feet away.

"Splinch me, and I'll give you hell for it."

It was enough to make Severus hesitate, and with a wandless 'Expelliarmus', Severus's wand joined Harry's own across the room. Jerking hard, Harry managed to drag Severus closer then in his surprise, bringing them flush against each other's chests. Both breathing unsteady, Harry clenched his fist tighter in the fabric of Severus's robes as he looked at him, their faces only inches apart now.

"You are fucking _infuriating_ sometimes, you know that?" he asked. His voice came out low and rough, the sound mingling with the low crackle of his riled up magic in the air around them, and this time he _felt_ Severus shudder against him. With a groan, Harry closed the distance between them to crush their lips together, tugging Severus a fraction closer with the hand in his robes.

He half expected Severus to push him away again. To shove him back and make a desperate run for his wand and the door. Instead, Severus remained still, long enough for Harry to finally ease back, unsure what to make of their position any more. They had barely separated, though, before Severus finally moved, fisting his own hands in the front of Harry's shirt and pulling him back in for another kiss.

The desperate sound that slipped from Severus's throat as their lips met again did Harry in. Leaving one hand tangled in his robes, he dropped the other to Severus's hip and steered him back a step, until he was pressed against the edge of the nearest work table. The hands tangled in his shirt tightened their grip, pulling him closer, and Harry leaned hard into Severus in answer, pinning him firmly in place with his body.

"You're insufferable," Harry murmured when he broke the kiss, dipping his head to press his mouth to Severus's jaw. "Bloody stubborn git." He punctuated his words with kisses and bites at Severus's skin, working his way along the line of his jaw and down the curve of his throat.

"Then why are you here?" Severus asked, already arching into Harry's mouth on him.

The breathless note of his voice sent a shudder racing down Harry's spine, and he had to force himself to pull back from him. Using his hand in Severus's robes, Harry pulled him forward until Severus's head lolled forward again and Harry leaned in to rest their foreheads together.

"Because I've been mad about you for months, and it's one of the things that makes you _you_. And I bloody love it."

Severus was quiet long enough for Harry to lean back for a better look at him. That odd expression was back, for the brief instant Severus met his gaze. And then Severus moved, capturing Harry's mouth with his own as he gave a sharp tug at his robes to pull them flush together once more.


End file.
